By this point, it’s well known that Livingston County housed one-half of this year’s co-Mr. Baseball winners in Hartland pitcher John Baker. Perhaps a well-kept secret is that the county also housed a 2016 Miss Softball winner.

Although Abby Krzywiecki elected to head out-of-town for her high school career, choosing Farmington Hills Mercy — and one could say rightfully so given it won the Division 1 state championship this past season— the state’s best position player was born and bred in Brighton.

One of the best power hitters in the state’s history and the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s record holder for home runs in a single season after belting 20 in 2016, Krzywiecki got her start in the sport in Brighton, playing softball through the Southeastern Livingston County Recreation Authority.

She doesn’t have quite as many connections in her hometown now after choosing to go to Mercy, and she’s not too familiar with anyone on Brighton’s current team, but she still looks at her native city fondly. After all, it’s where it all began, starting as a 6-year-old youth player to becoming a South Alabama commit.

“I’ve lived in the same neighborhood in Brighton since first grade,” Krzywiecki said. “I became really close with my neighbors and I loved going to public school in Brighton. I love living here, it’s a great place to grow up and it set the base of my career. I’ve loved softball ever since SELCRA. People here are all supportive and I still get texts all the time from people I used to go to school with.”

She might not attend Brighton High School, but the city was important enough to her and her family, that her dad, Keith, wanted to make sure her success on the diamond in her high school career was no longer a secret.

“We have so many friends (and) neighbors in the Brighton (and) Livingston area,” Keith said in an email. “Many know of her (but don’t know) how well she has been doing over the past four years. It would be great for them to hear about it.”

Of course, what she did wasn’t a secret to everybody. Her numbers surely made a loud enough statement.

After a stellar senior campaign, Krzywiecki’s name can be found plastered all over the state and national record books for game, season and career accomplishments. She ranks in the top-20 of 15 different categories, including hits, home runs, RBIs and batting average.

Krzywiecki’s 20 home runs in 2016 was a new state record, which was previously 18 and held by three different batters starting in 1979 (Pentwater’s Melinda Van Gillis) and being tied in both 2014 (Williamston’s Camri Grace) and 2015 (Romeo’s Madison Jones). It was also the nation’s sixth-highest mark.

The Brighton native also posted the state’s third-most RBIs (94) in a season, eighth-most hits (82) and 17th-highest batting average (.526). Her 48 home runs in her four-year career put her tied for second in that category, and she’s second as will in career RBIs (238) — the latter mark of 238 being good for fourth in the country’s history and former good for seventh. Single-game wise, Krzywiecki is tied for second in the state with three and is in fourth, fifth and sixth for having eight, seven and six RBIs in a single game, respectively.

For her performance, not only was Krzywiecki named the winner of Miss Softball for being the best position player at first base, but she was named STATE CHAMPS! Softball Player of the Year, MLive Detroit’s Softball Player of the Year and a Flosoftball First-Team All-American.

“I think, for me, a lot of it was, my fundamentals have been sound for a couple years, but I just worked on strengthening my mental game and my attitude toward softball," Krzywiecki said. “Especially this season, every single person on the team was my best friend. I did it for the team. I thrived on positivity and support and friends and family. I think it was cool to do it for myself, but it’s a team sport.”

That’s why, more than any award, winning states with her team trumped all else.

“My passion and my love for the game paid off,” she said. “But the state champs title means more because it’s a team sport. My goal at the end of the season was to win a state championship. To win that, and then after the game to be told I won Miss Softball was just a double whammy.”

Krzywiecki will leave Brighton and head to South Alabama in the next couple of weeks, where she will start her college education and compete for one of the nation’s top Division I softball programs. But like she did by going to Mercy, and as she continues to grow in the sport and improve at the plate, she said that she’ll remember where she got her roots.